Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate
Pic by SHERDOG.COM -click for source- Credit: Dave Mandel

With the Olympic vote being a big issue last week, I didn’t get around to writing a review about the first episode of this season of TUF. With the second episode already aired, I decided to go over both episodes in one article. With that here we go:

TUF Episode 1 ~ History in the making

The first episode certainly opened with some drama, as Meisha Tate walked into the UFC Training Center to meet Ronda Rousey, and with a recent dispute having taken place between Dana White and Ronda, she believed she was being removed from the show. After the confusion was cleared up, the preliminary fighters walked in and got the normal speech from Dana about what they should be doing in the house.

We saw some moving stories coming from the various fighters, right before we saw their hopes and dreams either further progressed or smashed in the Octagon. This included favorites Tonya Evinger, Tara LaRosa, and Colleen Schneider being eliminated and not making it into the TUF house.

Notable people who made it into the house were MMA vets Shayna Baszler, Roxanne Modafferi and former boxer turned MMA fighter Jessica Rakoczy. After the fighters won their matches, Rousey and Tate spent time to confer with their coaching staffs to talk about who to pick for which team.

The girls were picked first but before that Dana flipped the coin leading to Ronda choosing her first match rather then the first pick. With that, Tate chose training partner Julianna Pena while Rousey chose Baszler AKA “The Queen of Spades.” The picks proceeded and Modafferi was surprisingly the last pick for Team Tate and Rakoczy was the last overall pick. Ronda then chose Tate’s first round pick Pena against Baszler.

TUF Episode 2 ~ Ladies first

After everyone moved into the house, Team Tate’s Chris Holdsworth started thinking about all the sexual possibilities with all the women in the house, however the women would have none of it. During Team Tate’s training session, Louis Fisette was informed he was injured and couldn’t continue and was subsequently replaced by Tim Gorman who lost in his elimination fight.

Rousey also made an effort to get under Tate’s skin when she barged into the Training Center exactly as 6pm to kick Team Tate out. Finally the fight came and after a weird weigh in where Baszler stuck a queen of spades card in Pena’s bra, Pena pulled off an upset by enduring Baszler’s assault in the first round then coming back and submitting her in the second round. Rousey felt the burden of Baszler’s loss and turned it into rage by telling Tate that she would destroy her once again.

Next week we get to see a shouting match between the coaching staffs and the first men’s bout. Please leave a comment.